Between the Waves: The Hidden History of a Very British Revolution 1945-2016

by Tom McTague

‘[Tom McTague] has been writing some of the best journalism about the crisis of British politics’ David Runciman

'Britain’s best political writer' Sebastian Payne

This is the underground history of Britain’s fractious relationship with Europe – as it’s never been told before.

In a story of vaulting ambition and underhand politics, of nation, identity and belief, acclaimed journalist Tom McTague chronicles the battle of ideas, events and personalities that first took the country into the European Union in 1973, only to take it back out again in an explosive referendum a little over forty years later.

Building on meticulous research, unpublished sources and exclusive interviews, Between the Waves journeys back to the roots of ideological conflict that formed between major political figures in the fight for the future of Europe – Charles de Gaulle, Harold Macmillan, Jean Monnet, Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher. McTague tracks the legacy of these political giants to show how the ideas of a rag-tag group of rebels – including the Eurosceptic Bruges group, billionaire James Goldsmith and influential strategist Dominic Cummings – went from the brink of obscurity to landmark victory in a little over a generation.

Between the Waves is a compulsive and enlightening portrait of one of the defining political stories of our time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook

560 pages, Hardcover

Published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

We should pay more attention to the ideas of the right, rather than treating them only as epiphenomena. In that vein I welcome this intellectual-political history of Euroscepticism. I think McTague does a good job of tracing the development of opinion on Europe among conservative elites (and especially in the earlier stages, on the left as well) to show that it was almost always underpinned by an ambivalence about integration and an unwillingness to confront the implications of that ambivalence. Cakeism, you could say. Where he’s weaker is in delving into the roots of changing opinion (whose interests did different stages of euroscepticism serve?). He also sometimes elides elite opinion with ‘the public’ at large in a way that is unconvincing.

[Matt Jefford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling, if uneven, political history of Britain's postwar relationship with Europe. McTague follows our intrinsic national Euroscepticism, arguing that no Prime Minister - with the exception of Ted Heath - ever truly embraced European unity. Britain pursued a half-in, half-out stance driven by lingering imperial delusions: an urge to shape Europe while maintaining a unique separation. Decades of 'cakeism' ensued, of membership without obligations which would tie Britain into ever closer political and financial union.

McTague's focus on key personalities is insightful, if sometimes heavy-handed. It's unclear how the 'sceptred isle' conservatism of Roger Scruton or Norman Stone influenced or reflected public opinion, although their indirect effects - through a formative influence on Michael Gove or Dominic Cummings - were perhaps profound.

Inspired, among others, by Rick Perlstein's sweeping histories of insurgent American conservatism, McTague's narrative shines once we reach the 1980s and the rumblings of a targeted, grassroots Eurosceptic movement. But the first half lacks fresh insights (beyond the surprising Algiers contingency) and seems unimaginatively structured around election cycles. A deeper look at left-wing Eurosceptics like Tony Benn and Michael Foot would have added richness, or otherwise I would be minded to start the story proper with the Thatcher–Delors clashes of the latter 1980s.

Despite these flaws, Between the Waves is a reflective account, wistful in places, of Britain wrestling with its past and future self-conception through the prism of its European relations.